


It's a puppy thing

by froggydarren



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Jack on the Falconers team, M/M, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 20:34:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6625210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/froggydarren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once Jack joins the Falconers, there are obligations with the media. Bitty knows this, and Jack lets him know whenever a new article or photo shoot is about to happen or be printed. Somehow, neither of them counted on charity calendars coming into play.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's a puppy thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WhoNatural](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhoNatural/gifts).



> This one is totally on Niamh, who posted [this](http://howlnatural.tumblr.com/post/143168745094/this-calendar-features-firefighters-and-rescue) and tagged it with Zimbits. Thus my very first venture into the world of Check Please! Adjusted from firemen to the Falconers team, featuring puppies. That is all :)

Bitty was prepared for several things when Jack signed with the Falconers. There were going to be interviews -- print, online, and video -- and photos in magazines. He knew there would be magazine spreads at some point, of Jack alone and with his father -- the Zimmermann legacy was most definitely a headline grabber. He knew there would be Jack in his hockey gear, Jack in various suits, and -- if George had her way -- Jack in advertisements for whatever. 

So when Jack told him that the whole team was doing a photoshoot, Bitty didn’t go into panic mode. It was supposed to feature animals, as Jack explained, but the conversation quickly veered into other topics that night, and neither of them brought it up again. It wasn’t until Ransom and Holster came bursting into the Haus one day rambling on about puppies and calendars that Bitty remembered Jack’s words about the photos. Still, he wasn’t prepared for what Rans pulled up on his laptop screen. 

“Oh, we have to text him about this,” Chowder said when he leaned over the back of the couch to stare at the screen. 

Bitty, cheeks flushed bright red, slumped onto the couch -- that alone made Rans glance at him with worry -- and his jaw dropped as the photos of the Falconers showed up one by one. He saw Tater, Guy, Snowy, and the others all in their hockey pants but no tops, chests obscured by the puppies each of them was holding. And then, with a “ta-daaa” from Rans, the last photo popped up, and Bitty gasped. 

Jack was dressed the way the others were, and despite having seen all of the team in various states of undress -- Bitty had seen more of Shitty than he ever wanted to -- nothing compared to that sight. 

“Says here it’s for the children’s hospital down in Providence,” Chowder said, reading the captions on the photos, probably the only one able to focus on more than the pictures. 

Ransom and Holster were already furiously typing away on their phones -- in the group chat, if the buzzing of the text alerts in Bitty’s pocket was anything to go by -- and chuckling as they threw more glances at the screen. 

Bitty was frozen on the couch though, unable to  _ think _ , let alone move or speak. 

“Bitty, are you okay?” Chowder asked a while later. 

“Yeah, I… yeah, I’m fine,” Bitty said, finally managing to look away from the screen. “I’ll just…” he waved a hand, and he stood up, then rushed upstairs, the door slamming behind his back. 

When he pulled up the same page -- the address seared into his brain as much as the photos -- up on his own laptop, he gasped when the photo loaded, and he spotted the link to more. There were three in total -- well, more of the rest of the team, but three of  _ Jack _ \-- each of them breathtaking. 

There was Jack with his back turned to the camera, but glancing over his shoulder, his chin on top of the head of a fluffy puppy that was snoozing on his bare skin. Then another one, with a puppy rushing away and Jack leaning over it, a bright laugh on his face. And the first one that Bitty saw, with Tater and Guy flanking Jack, puppies in their muscled arms in front of their chests. 

When the phone in his pocket buzzed again -- a different rhythm than the group chat that went on since before he came to his room -- Bitty almost jumped out of his chair. It wasn’t a text, he knew, but a phone call from the man he was staring at. 

“Hey, honey,” Bitty answered a moment later, almost dropping the phone once he pulled it out of his pants. 

“I’m guessing you saw,” Jack said without a greeting, his voice quiet and dripping with anxiety. 

“Yeah, I…” Bitty blushed, and he reached out to shut the laptop’s cover. “That was a little unexpected.” 

“I told you about the photos,” Jack said. “I just didn’t know when they were… it seems a little more popular than it was meant to be.”

“No wonder, with all that skin on show,” Bitty blurted, and immediately slapped a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… I’m a lil’ surprised, is all.” 

“Georgia said it’d go to the mental health program for teens,” Jack said quietly, and Bitty couldn’t help the smile on his lips turning fond.

“Oh sweetheart, that’s amazing,” Bitty told him. “It’s a good thing that it’s gone all over then, more money for a good cause.”

“I guess,” Jack grumbled. “There’s gonna be a ton of chirping, though.”

“Worth it, won’t it?” Bitty asked. 

When Jack didn’t reply with anything but a heavy sigh, Bitty figured it was time to lighten the mood.

“Now, Mr. Zimmermann, I’ll be expecting pristine copies of those photos in the mail, ya hear me? I’d rather like to …  _ appreciate _ those by myself, without the whole Haus looking over my shoulder.” 

They’d been dating for a while now, but even so, Bitty was blushing at his own words, surprised that he managed to be as bold and not stumble over them. It paid off, though, since his boldness was rewarded with a chuckle from the other end of the line, and then Jack’s voice went deeper as he replied.

“Now, just how would you be appreciating them, Eric?” 

Safe to say, they didn’t talk about puppies in their usual nightly Skype call later. 

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://froggydarren.tumblr.com/)


End file.
